Hurt
by KyraBear
Summary: "What do you have on your neck?" Elliot asked. "My. My neck?" Olivia said softly, "El... I have, I have to go." She said and she felt sick, bile rising in her throat and her head spun.
1. Chapter 1

"Olivia?" Elliot said his voice concerned. Olivia's eyebrows raised gently and she shot him a gentle smile.

"Yeah?"

"N-nevermind." He stammered out then look down to his paperwork hoping he could get it done soon. Olivia sat at her desk twisting over in her chair, side to side, one leg folded over the other.

Fin and Munch came into the room, they picked up their respective meals, the white take out boxes marked with red characters. They jostled each other and left. Olivia pulled at her turtle neck, then placed it carefully back in place, but not before Elliot noticed the purple/yellow splotching, that confirmed his suspicion.

"Olivia?" Elliot tried once more.

"Hmm?" She said her brown eyes catching his.

"What do you have on your neck?"

"My. My neck?" Olivia said softly,

"El... I have, I have to go." She said and she felt sick, bile rising in her throat and her head spun.

Olivia picked up her purse and left without another world, she drove home, her knuckles white with tension, wrapped around the wheel. When she got home she lay the couch clinging to the furniture to stop the world from turning. Before she fell asleep she gave Cragen the call she should have before she left the precinct, he responded with a fatherly tone to get better. Olivia fell asleep in her day clothes, laying on the couch, until the nightmare came to her and she woke up in a cold sweat. A knock on her door resignated in her head and she stumbled to the door. She looked through the peep hole where Elliot stood patiently outside.

Olivia opened the door. And Elliot invited himself in, normally corgail and a gentleman, Elliot's concern outweighed his manners. "What are you hiding?" He put bluntly, he had spent the entire day worrying about his partner and couldn't imagine what it was, didn't want to, and that scared him. Olivia closed the door softly and turned to face him, leaning against the heavy oak for support.

"Olivia. Please." He said his voice cracking as he said her name. Olivia pressed her lips together, and shook her head softly.

"El. I-i can't." She swallowed and her voice shook.

"Liv." He said his patience wearing out, a lump grew in his throat, "please."

Olivia nodded knowing that her partner was just trying to look out for her, "I, I had a date last night... he he seemed nice and all and he walked me home... when we got back-" she cleared her throat.

Elliot's eyes burned, "tell me he didn't." He growled and started pacing her kitchen.

"I, he, no." Elliot looked unconvinced, his eyes grew dark and his brow set in a hard line but stopped and stayed still.

"Show me." He said his voice as hard as his eyes. Olivia watched, she was sure he was on the edge of violence, but she knew he wouldn't lay a finger on her.

"Elliot, its not a big deal." she tried to persuade him, Elliot just stared at her until she complied. She pulled off her jacket and discarded it on the floor, she paused faltering, not meeting Elliot's blue eyes, before she started to pull the dark turtle neck over her head. She revealed the dark yellowing purple splotches marking her abdomen, there was another one around her waist that clearly showed the imprint of a hand and she had a couple more that dusted her ribs. Elliot sat silent, icily calm. There was bruises down her arms and the one that worried him most, the one around her neck, he had tried to choke her. The bastard had tried to choke her.

Olivia stood in the middle of her living room, goosebumps rising up her arms and revealed stomach, she stood shirtless, in a dark lace bra in front of her partner, a flush creeping up her cheeks but all he did was stare at the bruises on her neck.

"Elliot... say something." She pleaded a lump grew in her throat and she knew she couldn't handle anymore questions. Elliot stood up, ice cold eyes suddenly burning with a new level of hatred.

"I'm going to kill him." He said a gravel in his voice, the muscle in his jaw twitching from being clenched so hard. He made a move to her door, he didn't have a name but he knew her lobby had a video camera and he wouldn't sleep until this bastard had a bullet in his brain. He was turned away from her when she called his name

"El." Her voice broke and tears flooded her face. When Elliot turned back to his sobbing partner he knew that he need to stay. He wrapped his arms around her and held her as her chest shook. She didn't say anything else as she cried, and Elliot maneuvered her to the couch where he laid down. She curled up in his lap her stomach aching where the bruises marked her body. Elliot pulled a blanket over the both of them where Olivia fell asleep, her head resting on his chest. Elliot leaned down and kissed the forehead of his sleeping partner, suppressed the urge to kiss every bruise she had hidden across her body, and snuggled down deeper into the arm of the couch, where he spent the night, until drifting off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Olivia woke in the midst of the night. Her heart beat furiously in her chest, and she could barely breathe. She felt tangled, in a web, by someone else's creation. She looked up from herself to see her partner's sleeping face, and being with him made her feel an irrationally surge of hope, he subdued her fears. And she lay her head back down on his chest. His ribs swelling with every breath, and she could hear the pounding of his heart in her ear where she had laid her head down. For every breath he took, she inhaled, matching his breathing as if that could soothe her, and it did, for a time.

When Olivia woke again, she was cold, shivering, and she blindly pawed at the empty space her partner had left in his wake. She closed her eyes, feeling alone yet again, she snuggled deeper into the couch, as if she could somehow escape her own head. "Coffee?" She heard come from above her head. She peered one eye open to see Elliot holding a coffee mug in one hand. His other clasped the morning newspaper. She smiled at this, and took the dark bitter liquid gratefully. She sat up to drink it but stopped, clasping the blankets to her chest, she remembered her unfortunate state of undress. She blushed and Elliot looked away, his blue eyes soft, in the morning light.

Elliot watched as Olivia made her great escape to her bedroom. He watched her as she shut the door quickly behind her. And something in his chest jumped. It was a sort of emptiness that took over him when he was with her. An emptiness that took over him when he wasn't.

Elliot had already called the super of her building and ordered the videotapes of the last few days to be sent to the precinct under his name. He hoped that Olivia wouldn't find out, but he couldn't let anyone hurt her. He already felt new waves of guilt from what had happened to her the last night. He should've told her, he should've known. But how could he?

Olivia walked out of her room, the old NYPD grey and blue t-shirt covering most of the bruises. Elliot could still see the one creeping up her neck, and the two on her wrists. And that made his stomach turn, bile rising out of his throat. He turned his back to make sure she couldn't see the anger so clearly written in his face, but she saw his shoulders tense and she knew he was angered, she just couldn't tell at whom. She sipped at her coffee in silence waiting for him to do something, say anything. But he didn't, and Olivia felt the hot sting of the tears rising back in her eyes. She dug the palms of her hands into her eyes rubbing gently, and then brought them down her face for good measure, they pulled her lips down to resemble a fish.

Elliot couldn't look at her as he excused himself from her apartment, how could he, what could he say that got rid of the tension in the air, that could make her feel better. Words wouldn't fix this, he knew that much. He wanted to just leave, just leave and not explain to her that he was going to find that man, he was going to find him with her help or not, and then, then he would hurt him. For every bruise he had given her, Elliot would give him ten in return. He opened the door to leave, but something nagged at his insides, told him he couldn't leave, not like this.

"Olivia?" He said softly, hoping his voice wouldn't startle the already on edge detective.

She looked up at him not trusting herself to open her mouth, not trusting herself with much of anything. Elliot took a few steps to where she sat and she rose to meet him. He grabbed her around the waist, without much thought. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his nose in her hair, closing his eyes, wishing her sadness away, as if he could do that with pure will alone. With her body in his arms, he held her in a sort of raw hug. She closed her eyes, letting the moment fill her heart before pulling away. If she stayed in his arms any longer, she would want to stay, to never leave, those arms were home to her, and she couldn't do that. To him or to herself, she needed to hold herself together, at least for as long as it took for the door to shut behind him.

"Go." She whispered, voice catching in her throat. And Elliot nodded, once, twice, before he grabbed his coat and walked out of the room.

Olivia counted slowly to ten before she let herself fall apart, she stumbled to her bedroom and shut the door. She didn't even think of calling Cragen and explaining her absence, before she drifted back down to sleep.


End file.
